150 feet off the
coast of Sunset Beach in Cape May, New Jersey, a strange structure
sticks out of the water.
What is it?
A sign by the edge of the road says that it is the remains of
the S.S. Atlantus,
one of twelve experimental ships built
of concrete during the First World War, but "proven impractical
because of weight."
What did the Atlantus look like? Who would build a ship out
of concrete? What happened to the other eleven ships?
With the help of some books, websites and emails, I was able
to find the answers to these questions. I learned of the S.S.
Palo Alto, the famous "Cement Boat" of Aptos, California;
the S.S. Selma, the honorary "Flagship
of Texas"; the S.S. San Pasqual,
which ran aground off Cuba, later turned into a hotel; and the
S.S. Peralta, still afloat to this day, protecting a Canadian
logging mill from the fury of the north Pacific Ocean.
I also learned that the concrete ship experiment was not quite
the failure that the sign implied - another
fleet was built during World War II.
I decided it was time someone gathered all this information in
one website, so that others fascinated by these experiments in
shipbuilding would be able to learn more about them.
- Rob Bender, Webmaster
of ConcreteShips.org
The S.S. Atlantus as she looked
in 1926.